Telecommunication networks and other networks are increasing in both size and complexity. Unfortunately, as such networks increase in size, the network management function also increases in complexity. This means that critical tasks such as provisioning (allocating resources to form a communications link), restoration, reinstatement and the like must be completed in a reasonable time using network management tools available to a network manager.
In a provisioning mode, for example, an operator specifies all details of a circuit such as end points, appropriate links, time slots and network elements. The provisioning mode allows the operator to select a particular circuit for routing a communication, such as a telephone call or other communication. The operator interacts with the system via a graphical user interface (GUI) that represents the network including the circuit to be provisioned.
Unfortunately, the display of a relatively large network is quite crowded due to the number of graphical objects displayed. Moreover, performance of the GUI and control systems linked thereto tends to be degraded by the large amount of information exchanged by different subsystems, such as fault management modules, performance monitoring modules, configuration management module, graphical user interface modules and the like.